Movie Review: Fright Night (Film Number 14 In My Goal For 2011 Films)

Surprisingly enough during my journey watching 2011 films so far, I haven't really seen any horror films (I saw The Rite and The Roommate, but let's be honest, they don't really count). Fright Night is the first film that I would actually classify as a legitimate horror film that I've seen so far this year. On top of being the first horror film I've seen this year, it was the first film I've seen all year that was hard to form an opinion on.

Fright Night is one of those rare films that (for me at least) that made me change my opinion of it constantly while watching. At first, I thought it was pretty bad. The first half is a tonal mess that wasn't very funny or scary.  It seemed like the film was on autopilot. The acting wasn't bad, but I didn't really care that much about the characters. Then at the halfway point, Peter Vincent (David Tennant) is introduced into the film. Vincent is a magician that is an expert on vampire killing that assists Charley (Anton Yelchin) in hunting Jerry (Colin Farrell). Tennant is fantastic as Vincent. The minutes he gets on screen he injects so much life into the film. He really makes the second half of the film pretty enjoyable to watch. The second half everything just begins to gel. There's laughs, the characters before more interesting, the acting improves, and the vampire action picks up. The only issue is that I couldn't really enjoy this film that much due to the weak start. I might need to see it again on DVD to solidify my opinion of it, but for the time being I can't really recommend this film. Fright Night is part bad, part enjoyable which adds up to an average film.

2.5/5 Stars